LHC NEWS: Large Hadron Collider Sets Collision RECORD, CERN Reports

The Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest atom smasher on the quest to discover the 'God particle,' has smashed its previous record for particle collisions, CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) reports.

The Associated Press reports:

The world's largest atom smasher has set a record for high-energy collisions by crashing two proton beams at three times more force than ever before.

The $10 billion Large Hadron Collider directed the beams into each other Tuesday as part of its ambitious bid to reveal details about theoretical particles and microforces.

The collisions start a new era of science for researchers working on the machine below the Swiss-French border at Geneva.

Scientists at a control room at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, broke into applause when the first successful collisions were recorded. Their colleagues from around the world were tuning in by remote links.

WATCH:
(via CNN)

Comments

[Rapier]

09:12 PM on 04/01/2010

From Scientific Headlines (April 1, 2010) --- Disaster at CERN: The Large Hadron Collider has disappeared into a black hole it formed during an experiment. Several well known scientists including Professor Doctor Ty A. Knott of String Theory fame have disappeared along with it. But the Professor's extra dimension analog gives us hope they will all reappear again on the other side of the black hole in an alternative universe ... provided his theory is correct.

[rotorhead1871]

12:23 AM on 04/01/2010

$$10 B for only 3X power increase??? I hope they have more. for 10B I would expect at lease one order of magnetude increase.

[ProFormaArtista]

11:13 PM on 03/31/2010

I predict that it will not discover anything significant. However, it might lead to lateral discoveries as a result of the manufacturing of the Hadron.

I wonder if the gub'mnt can fund someone with good morality to try to discover corporate and political morality?

[CessnaDriver]

09:45 PM on 03/31/2010

Hey, if this thing leads to a new weapon or a cure for impotence, it will pay for itself!

[JohnSawyer]

09:52 PM on 03/31/2010

A cure for impotence--are you implying "Large Hadron Collider" might be a double entendre?

[CessnaDriver]

11:28 PM on 03/31/2010

It is for science geeks!

[booki]

09:56 PM on 03/31/2010

i thought we were all about peace.....
insofar as impotence,
try hooking up with the gops,
the last 2 things we need in this world :
weapons
and pro creating..

[booki]

08:19 PM on 03/31/2010

i have a really bad problem
admitting: i dont care about where life originated.
i care about life.

[Higgs Boson]

10:51 PM on 03/31/2010

come on now , curiosity is a natural trait among humans . Aren't you just a little curious ?

[Lefty Pockets]

12:19 AM on 04/01/2010

The LHC doesn't seek to answer that question(where life originated) so don't worry. Like you I care about life but mine happens to be enriched through a sense of awe, mystery, and hard-earned understanding of a reality beyond everyday human interactions. That being said, life would not be worth living without other living beings so if you don't care about this stuff then don't sweat it. Peace be with you and go on your merry way.

[shivasquest]

07:19 PM on 03/31/2010

Quantum mechanical quotes


» Quantum mechanics is magic. Daniel Greenberger.
» Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real. Niels Bohr.
» Those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it. Niels Bohr.
» If you are not completely confused by quantum mechanics, you do not understand it. John Wheeler.
» It is safe to say that nobody understands quantum mechanics. Richard Feynman.
» If [quantum theory] is correct, it signifies the end of physics as a science. Albert Einstein.
» I do not like [quantum mechanics], and I am sorry I ever had anything to do with it. Erwin Schrödinger.
» Quantum mechanics makes absolutely no sense. Roger Penrose.

[darkpragmatist]

08:22 PM on 03/31/2010

that doesn't mean they don't understand the mathematics they're working with. it means it's not logical, it can't be understood at an intuitive level. it means there is no metaphor for the quantum and since it is impossible to describe something new without metaphor it is impossible to describe quantum physics. that doesn't mean it doesn't work, it just means that outside the mathematics it's impossible to translate accurately.

[shivasquest]

08:36 PM on 03/31/2010

who said Physics is to math what sex is to masterbation?

[TFlint]

04:07 PM on 03/31/2010

If you don't understand quantum physics, just say "I don't understand." Why say "They're plotting to kill us all." "Those billions could have been spent on ME" "It's a bomb!" ?

[shivasquest]

06:54 PM on 03/31/2010

Nobody fully understands Quantum Physics genius.Nobody.Its an open question.

[CessnaDriver]

09:40 PM on 03/31/2010

"That's no moon! That's a space station!"

[Higgs Boson]

10:44 PM on 03/31/2010

I bet science can not answer one question that I have wondered about for years . Could Chewbacca have been a girl wookie ? fanned cessna

[Higgs Boson]

07:52 AM on 03/31/2010

http://www.cyriak.co.uk/lhc/lhc-webcams.html .............. here is a view from camera's at CERN , enjoy

[JohnSawyer]

03:40 AM on 03/31/2010

Remember when the solar system collapsed in on itself when they fired this thing up the other day? I think we'll all remember where we were when that happened.

[TFlint]

03:57 PM on 03/31/2010

I missed that. I was disintegrated when they bombed the moon.

[CessnaDriver]

11:03 PM on 03/31/2010

Funny, the night they did that I had fallen asleep in front of the TV, but awoke just in time to see it "live".

July 20, 1969 it wasn't.

[shivasquest]

03:24 AM on 03/31/2010

Billions for what?What are the practicle implications?What are the risks?
The whole thing is really fishy.Who funds this type of research anyway and for what end.
Do we really even need to know the answer when we are still driving around with fossil fuels and spewing smog?
Is this where all the alchemists went?

[JohnSawyer]

04:25 AM on 03/31/2010

As for the billions, better it be spent this way, before it's snapped up for more war expenditures, bailouts, etc.

As for who funds the LHC:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/large-hadron-collider/7538956/The-Large-Hadron-Collider-Questions-and-Answers.html

"The Large Hadron Collider cost a total of £4.4 billion, of which the UK contributed £500 million, the third largest amount behind the French and the Swiss." 20 other countries provided the rest of the funding.

As for why, there are many reasons, but the primary general reason is to improve our understanding of how matter and energy really work. That can have all kinds of practical uses, if one wanted to focus just on those--electronics, materials science, energy production, pollution control, etc. But to edge closer to understanding the bigger picture--how the universe works--isn't something to sneeze at either.

As for risks, those were calculated pretty exhaustively, and the calculations showed there was very little risk, especially of the fabled "it'll make a black hole and the Earth will get sucked in" variety.

As for whether this is where all the alchemists went, you'll have to ask them!

[shivasquest]

02:44 PM on 03/31/2010

How do you calculate for unknown variables?
We now know from the first a-bomb testing they didnt really know what would happen but they took that risk anyway.We were lucky.And it made the world a safer place right?And its interesting that most of the scientists who do the calculation and assesments are associated with CERN.Not a problem?

[shivasquest]

03:01 PM on 03/31/2010

PS
and what makes you think this isnt focused on making a weapon?

BBC

The envelopes contain the work of two French scientists, Hans Von Halban and Lew Kowarski, who worked in the Cavendish laboratory in Cambridge.

The documents detail experiments on nuclear fission, covering the components needed to make a nuclear reactor, how to create plutonium from uranium, and methods to stabilise nuclear chain reactions.

Dr Brian Cox, a particle physicist from Cern, said: "These papers describe what was cutting-edge science at the time.

Kowarski was founding member of CERN.

[Higgs Boson]

04:41 AM on 03/31/2010

We do not know why yet , the search for knowledge is on going

[shivasquest]

02:51 PM on 03/31/2010

We dont know why yet......doesnt that say alot right there?
10 billion and who knows why?
Isnt that kind of an important question?

[ziploked]

02:38 AM on 03/31/2010

This is great news. We always seem to hear about the Hadron Collider, but does anyone know why the National Ignition Facility in California never seems to be in the U.S. news? I know it's a completely different thing, but the NIF is geared toward something a little more practical -- solving the planet's clean energy using laser generated fusion.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/may/28/national-ignition-facility-fusion-energy

[CGI]

03:17 AM on 03/31/2010

Potentially Explaining Everything > Anything Else

[FirstNation]

03:35 AM on 03/31/2010

Because the LHC can tell us answers to things like what fundamental particles make up all the matter in the known universe. That might not seem practical, but if you look at the studies being done, it's clear this will change the game and rewrite science books. The potential of new understandings about the relationships of sub atomic particles can be applied to everything, including the experiment in Cali. Think of it like a new age of technology like quantum mechanics did for computing.

[SilentSolidarity]

02:35 AM on 03/31/2010

Btw. they have a Live-Cam for anyone who is interested in CERN: http://www.lhc-live.com/

[SwingingFromCenter]

07:11 PM on 03/31/2010

Cute.

[JohnSawyer]

09:01 PM on 03/31/2010

I remember when that happened! :)

[dorzic]

01:23 AM on 03/31/2010

The object is to create small black holes, and provide evidence of the other 6 dimensions.

[dolphy]

12:25 AM on 03/31/2010

i bet you if they ever collect one milligram of anti matter, humans will make it into a bomb. our wisdom has not caught up with our technology.

[Lefty Pockets]

01:32 AM on 03/31/2010

Unfortunately, I think you're right. We already collect and store antimatter in Penning traps, but the technology is so primitive and quantities of antimatter stored are so small that, for the present, I am not worried. Creating an antimatter bomb is no small feat and eventually it will be possible, but we have enough problems to worry about for the next several decades, so in the current timeframe, I think we should focus on those problems first.

[TFlint]

04:01 PM on 03/31/2010

When they invented the ball point pen they were really trying to make a bomb.

[Lefty Pockets]

07:01 PM on 03/31/2010

You are referring to the notorious exploding pen. Hitler's deadliest secret weapon until the allies invented the exploding cigar.

[shivasquest]

09:59 PM on 03/31/2010

Because blackholes and ball point pens have so much in common.

[LafourmiRouge]

12:13 AM on 03/31/2010

Well, I'm just waiting for them to find Schrödinger's cat.

[Soule23]

12:56 AM on 03/31/2010

The cat is in the box. Is it dead or alive or both?

[Lee323]

12:59 AM on 03/31/2010

Makes a difference, ya know. Two of the scenarios will require cleaning the quantum litter box.

[Higgs Boson]

01:18 AM on 03/31/2010

according to quantum mechanics it is both .

[Lalalandboy]

12:58 AM on 03/31/2010

They will and they won't.